District finance chief lays out $156.9M preliminary budget and a proposed 4.21% tax levy

At the March 18 Poughkeepsie City School District workshop, Assistant Superintendent for Business Mike Tuttle presented a preliminary 2026–27 budget overview and a recommended tax-levy plan. Tuttle said the district’s draft budget totals $156,908,757 and that the proposed maximum tax levy for the coming year is $34,952,161, which he characterized as a 4.21% levy (the calculation relies on state formulas and allowable growth factors).

Tuttle identified major budget drivers: salaries and benefits (roughly 70–75% of the budget), projected health-plan cost increases (projected to be $1.3M higher than budgeted), and rising BOCES and transportation costs. He also called attention to the district’s restricted reserves (approximately $42,000,500 starting July 1), and said the plan anticipates using about $7,000,000 of reserves this year, leaving an estimated remaining restricted balance of about $35,000,500.

Tuttle said a charter school in town is costing the district more than planned: the district budgeted $3.5M but is now estimating a $4.1M payment tied to higher-than-expected charter enrollment. He told trustees the per-pupil tuition figure used in his estimate runs roughly to district expectation ($17,000 per student in his calculation for the charter-related obligation). He also noted that some federal and COVID-era grants that temporarily boosted district revenue have expired.

Trustees pressed Tuttle for where cuts might come and how to explain the levy to taxpayers. Tuttle recommended reviewing multi-year trends by budget code, auditing state-aid submissions with a proposed state-aid specialist, reviewing BOCES use, and conducting a software audit to eliminate unused licenses. A trustee warned that the city recently raised municipal taxes and that presenting a 4.21% school tax increase could provoke strong public pushback; other trustees urged searching for all grant and revenue alternatives before increasing the levy.

Tuttle said timeline items include an April 8 board action item on the budget (board approval expected), a BOCES election on April 28, a budget hearing on May 6 and the public vote and school board election on May 19. He described contingency steps if the budget fails, including a second vote or moving to contingency (which would restrict some purchases and services).